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Saturday, 16 June 2012

Gladiators From Three Cities

As promised yesterday, Victor from the Southern Battlegamers came down to the Gong yesterday evening, to show me what his group had been doing to 'Munera Sine Missione'. We were also joined by John from Canberra (via Sydney, it's true). So, gamers from three cities took part in the evening.

Victor had a gorgeous arena with him.

We played several one to one games. The SBG have made some quite radical changes to the way armour weight is determined and how Action Points are determined, and we tried out different gladiators to see how they affected the game. I was apprehensive at first, but it looks like most of the changes work and are relatively true to my vision for the game.

I will read through the changes and decide which ones I will be putting into the 'official' version of the game.

Victor had brought an alternative arena, consisting of an atrium in which two gladiators took part in a private fight for the entertainment of the rich and powerful. It used squares rather than hexes, and had obstacles in the form of pillars, pots and a shallow pool containing an unpredictable crocodile. We played a couple of games, and tweaked a few of the rules as we did to give the players more choices and decisions to make.

Finally we switched to a Napoleonic naval game. Victor was happy to watch (because it was almost time to leave), whilst John taught me how to play the Langton fast-play Napoleonic naval rules. We played a simple frigate action, which showed off how the mechanisms worked, but was a little sterile for just two ships. It's easy to see how they might work well for larger action with players handling big fleets, though.

Here we see my Dutch frigate tacking whilst the British ship fires on it from long range.

The two ships eventually settled into a straight gunnery duel. In this picture the British ship is on fire, but they rallied, extinguished it and then battered the Dutch into submission.

I have to say, I don't find it(SCAFP)sterile, there is enough curiousity in the fail/success rolls plus the gameplay to make it interesting. The only thing I would change would be the sailinmg rules to make it slightly more varied.

I didn't dislike them as rules. I just found that for a single ship action they didn't do it for me. I like the equally simple (but mechanically different) 'Form Line Of Battle', with its quirky random movement and initiative system.

The beautiful arenas really enhance the gladiator theme - nice work Victor. Munera Sine Missione is a great pick up game. I just hope the proposed changes don't clutter the elegant mechanics. Provided there aren't too many exceptions and add-ons it should be ok.

The Stronghold Rebuilt

Officially a blog about 'Hordes Of The Things', the excellent fast-play fantasy miniatures rules from WRG. But expect minor, and not so minor diversions into other games as well, as my grasshopper-like mind leaps from one cool thing to another.

Allegedly worse than Hitler and more bigoted than The Miniatures Page. Actually not.